Announcements

Here are some interesting news items and blog posts from this morning:

A post about what law professor do, though I think all these debates always miss the role of law professors in the public policy community as individuals who advise on both legal and non-legal issues and raise public awareness.

Vermont Law School seeks a Faculty Director for its Environment and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC) to commence in the summer or fall of 2012, or possibly earlier.

Vermont Law School

Vermont Law School’s top-ranked environmental program includes a curriculum of over 60 environmental law courses, as well as two advanced degrees in environmental law – the Masters in Environmental Law and Policy (MELP) and the Environmental LLM degree. Between a third and a half of our JD students are enrolled as joint degree students in the MELP program.

Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic

The ENRLC forms a key component of the environmental education we offer our students. The program functions as a public interest environmental law firm and gives students the opportunity to hone their skills in real-world cases and projects. The ENRLC is organized into four main program areas – Water and Justice, Coal and Climate, Healthy Communities, and Biodiversity – and we retain the flexibility to take on cases and projects outside these areas as well. The ENRLC’s work includes a mix of litigation, administrative agency proceedings, client counseling, and other forms of environmental advocacy. Our clients are community groups and conservation organizations, and we partner with a wide variety of organizations at the local, regional, and national level. The ENRLC offers students three enrollment options during the fall and spring: part-time (6 credits), three-quarter time (9 credits), and full-time (13 credits). Students may also participate in a summer session for up to 9 credits toward the JD or MELP degree. The ENRLC staff consists of a director, an assistant director, two staff attorneys, two clinic fellows (LLM students working part-time in the ENRLC while pursuing their LLM degrees), a litigation paralegal, and an administrative assistant. The ENRLC selects up to 10 students for each of the fall, spring, and summer terms, and it may gradually expand the number of student clinicians as office space and supervisory capacity allow. The ENLRC Director reports to the Associate Dean for Clinical and Experiential Programs and works in coordination with the Associate Dean for Environmental Law Programs. More information about the program is available on the ENRLC website: http://www.vermontlaw.edu/x1389.xml.

Duties and Responsibilities

The ENRLC Director is charged with administering the ENRLC and supervising its faculty, staff, and student clinicians, including the following general duties and responsibilities:

Evaluating and selecting new cases and projects in consultation with other ENRLC faculty and staff.

Raising funds for the program through grants and donations, with the assistance of the administration.

Developing and maintaining relationships with other environmental clinics and clinical organizations.

It is highly desirable for the ENRLC Director to participate in the broader academic life of Vermont Law School. For example, past directors and staff attorneys taught courses in the regular academic program or summer program (such as Environmental Law, Watershed Management, and Air Pollution Law & Policy); participated as guest lecturers in other courses; published scholarly articles and book chapters; attended faculty meetings; participated in faculty committees; served on panels at VLS conferences; represented VLS at AALS and ABA meetings and other gatherings; and interacted with new and traditional media on behalf of the school.

Qualifications

Candidates should have at least seven years of environmental litigation experience, substantial experience supervising staff attorneys and other personnel, and experience with office management and fundraising. A demonstrated commitment to teaching and mentoring is essential. Experience in clinical legal education is desirable. Doctrinal teaching experience within the legal academy is helpful, but not necessary.

How to Apply

To apply, please send a cover letter, curriculum vitae, writing sample, and references to Diane Hayes, Director of Human Resources, Vermont Law School, PO Box 96, South Royalton, VT 05068. Electronic applications are strongly preferred and can be sent to jobs@vermontlaw.edu. Applications will be considered as they are submitted. The position will remain open until filled.

Shiretown Books

Friday, May 13, 7:30 p.m.

9 Central St., Woodstock, Vermont 05091

Jason Czarnezki, environmental law professor at Vermont Law School, will discuss his new book Everyday Environmentalism, a guide to the small personal choices that have a positive effect on the natural world.

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT –– Vermont Law School Professor Jason Czarnezki, an internationally recognized scholar in environmental and natural resources law and policy, has been appointed faculty director of VLS’s U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to continue the Partnership’s work in building China’s capacity for individual and institutional action to solve environmental and energy problems,” Czarnezki said.

Established in 2006, the U.S.-China Partnership works to improve China’s environmental governance and rule of law, including criminal and civil enforcement of environmental laws and regulations that have been widely ignored during China’s economic boom. “We’re excited to have such an accomplished scholar join our team,” said Assistant Professor Siu Tip Lam, program director of the Partnership.

Under the leadership of Czarnezki and Lam, the Partnership will enter a new era of increased scholarship and academic exchange with Chinese institutions that solidifies VLS’s role as the leading U.S. law school working on Chinese environmental and energy law and policy issues.

Czarnezki will work with Lam to:

Expand research and policy development projects on Chinese environmental and energy law;

Coordinate research and scholarship between U.S.and Chinese scholars and students;

Help develop and implement capacity building programs for Chinese government officials, scholars and lawyers.

Strengthen the VLS curriculum on Chinese environmental law and policy;

Develop internship programs for VLS students in China;

Create academic and student exchanges between VLS and Chinese institutions;

Promote scholarly publication and lectures by VLS faculty and students on China’s environmental issues.

Czarnezki, who received a law degree from The University of Chicago, has held academic appointments at Marquette UniversityLawSchool, DePaul University College of Law, and Sun Yat‑sen (Zhongshan) University in Guangzhou, China, where he spent the 2009-2010 academic year as a J. William Fulbright Scholar. He has presented his work on environmentalism, natural resources law, food policy, global climate policy and U.S.-China relations at universities, public interest organizations, government institutions, and conferences throughout the United State sand Asia. He is working on a series of articles about U.S.government involvement in Chinese environmental policy and an edited volume on the future of Chinese environmental policy.

Lam, who has been the U.S.-China Partnership’s program director since May 2010, will continue to direct its capacity building programs in China. Lam came to VLS from the Massachusetts Attorney General Office, where was an assistant attorney general in the Environmental Protection Division. She received her law degree from Northeastern University Law School. A native of Hong Kong, she speaks Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese.

“Professor Czarnezki will deepen our ability to serve students and faculty from China and the U.S. as we further integrate our work in China with our academic program here in Vermont,” said Dean Jeff Shields.

The U.S.-China Partnership has trained more than 1,000 Chinese lawyers, judges, government officials and others, conducted numerous workshops and undertaken other initiatives. The Partnership recently helped to establish China’s first public interest environmental law firm and a new university legal advocacy center devoted to environmental health and safety issues.

Much of the Partnership’s work has been done through grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development. VLS’s partners include Sun Yat-sen University Law School, the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims at the China University of Political Science and Law, the Vermont-based Regulatory Assistance Project, and the China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Student Research Associates in Vermont Law School’s US-China Partnership for Environmental Law:

Vermont Law School’s US-China Partnership in Environmental Law seeks three students to become Research Associates for the 2011-12 academic year beginning in Summer or Fall 2011.

The Student Research Associates will work under the guidance of Professor Jason Czarnezki and the China Partnership Program Team, and engage in significant scholarship and research on issues related to Chinese and American environmental and natural resources policy, global climate policy and U.S.-China relations. Student Research Associates will be joining the China Partnership’s emerging research team, and will be expected to attend weekly meetings with the program’s research faculty, visiting scholars, and LLM fellows. Students participating in the joint research project program are eligible to apply.

Interested students should send via email a cover letter, resume, and unofficial transcript to Professor Czarnezki.

Today please join ELI, Island Press and Treehugger as we celebrate Earth Day 2011 with a Bookhugger live web chat with Jason Czarnezki, author of Everyday Environmentalism: Law, Nature and Individual Behavior (published by ELI Press). This live discussion will begin at 3 pm EDT on Thursday, April 21st, and can be accessed here:

In Everyday Environmentalism, Czarnezki investigates the individual decisions that have the worst environmental impacts, along with the ecological costs of food choices and the environmental costs of sprawl. In the process, he reveals how public policy can both respect and influence personal choice to drive environmental change.